Would you clone your dog?
Winnie II is Britain’s first cloned pet. But the £60,000 procedure is far from perfect. So . . .
Any PET that helps its ts teenage owner conquer er bulimia and depression on deserves a lifetime of love ve and treats. But the reward rd meted out to a sausagee-dog called Winnie may be regarded as unnatural — and even cruel — by many animal lovers.
The 12-year-old dachshund has become the he first dog in Britain to be cloned, after owner ner Rebecca Smith won a contest held by ya a South Korean company — Sooam Biotech ch Research Foundation — with the purpose of publicising its cloning technique.
Sooam’s technology allowed a ‘mini-Winnie’ to be spawned, genetically identical to the original, but pupped by an unrelated animal.
After a piece of skin was taken from Winnie and transported to Seoul, a cell from that skin sample was placed inside a hollowed-out egg and electricity was used to spark fertilisation. Then the embryo was implanted inside a mongrel dog that acted as a surrogate womb.
The cloned puppy was born via Caesarean on March 30, weighing just over 1lb. It must spend the first six months of its life in quarantine before it can begin living with Rebecca.
Viewers of Channel 4’s documentary The £ 60,000 Puppy (£60,000 is the fee Sooam would normally charge to clone a dog) last night saw Rebecca, 30, and her family close to tears as they described how the original Winnie’s affectionate personality and doggy optimism had helped them through a nightmare of mental illness.
‘Without Winnie I don’t know where you’d be,’ Rebecca’s mother told her earnestly. ‘Winnie has saved you.’
The dachshund was an 18th birthday present for Rebecca, at a time when she was ‘having lots of demons’. The pet helped her overcome the eating disorder she had strugged with for years.
now, with their beloved Winnie elderly and arthritic, the Smiths faced a sorrowful parting that confronts all dog-lovers. ‘She’s very special, but she’s not going to be around f or ever,’ said Rebecca, a caterer in London.
Rebecca cannot bear to imagine a life without her canine friend. ‘When Winnie dies, I’ll have to move, because every time I go for a walk I’ll think of her, and I honestly won’t be able to cope,’ she said.
Millions will understand — but many would recoil f rom the concept of manufacturing a genetic copy. For one thing, there is the cost. Sooam Biotech justifies the colossal price-tag by pointing to the multi-millions s pent on devel o pi ng t he technology.
EXPERTS emphasise the fact that cloning cannot revive a dead pet. The new animal might look identical, but it will have different experiences, perhaps even a different personality. The Kennel Club said it was ‘genuinely shocked’ by Sooam’s contest, and added that there is little guarantee ‘mini Winnie’ will resemble her namesake in anything but looks.
Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, an expert in genetics at the national Institute For Medical Research in London, said: ‘I see no valid justification for cloning pets. It is a ridiculous waste of money and hope as well as being ethically very dubious.’
yet nothing can diminish Rebecca’s delight.
‘I saw it being born and it looks exactly like Winnie,’ she insists. ‘It is identical. Personality-wise, I couldn’t tell you because it doesn’t see and it doesn’t hear yet — it is just a little sausage dog that wriggles around drinking milk.’
The technology that makes cloning possible first hit the headlines almost 20 years ago. Dolly the sheep was created by scientists at Edinburgh Univer- sity in 1996, but was plagued by health problems and put down at the relatively young age of six.
The biologist who cloned Dolly, Sir Ian Wilmut, said he did not believe cloned animals automatically inherited the character of the original — the essence that had made them so loved in the first place — and warned that owners could be disappointed.
One of the lead researchers at Sooam, Dr Insung Hwang, says cloning ‘is able to prolong the companionship with your dog by bringing back the memories you have with your friend’.
But he also admits some breeds may not produce clones that look quite the same — a Dalmatian’s spots may be different, for example, or eye colouring could vary.
And the cloned dog’s personality? He concedes that nurture, as well as nature, plays a role.
But don’t his clients — who have spent tens of thousands of pounds — think they are bringing their dead dog back to life? ‘I can’t control what our clients think about the cloning procedure,’ he says.
There are other concerns. The cloning process leads to some puppies bei ng born wit h disabilities or malformations.
But Dr Hwang estimates 90 per cent of the pregnancies he achieves are healthy. And he points out even naturally conceived pregnancies have risks.
For now, Britain is now waking up to cloned dogs, and it will be fascinating to see whether Rebecca Smith’s new puppy is just like her old one — or a different beast entirely.